


Future Firsts

by Basched



Series: Past Present Future [4]
Category: Primeval
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-28
Updated: 2013-11-28
Packaged: 2018-01-02 21:57:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basched/pseuds/Basched
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt Anderson had to grow up in a time very different from ours.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Child

**Author's Note:**

> These are my Future oneshots, set in different points of Matt Anderson's time and his life. They are connected to all the others in the Past/Present/Future series and this should be read after A Confession, Order and Decision and before New Dawn
> 
> A lot of these aren't beta'd so there will be mistakes.

He had wandered for so very long.  
  
He didn’t know what he was looking for, but the hell, the dirt and dust and blood was all there was. He knew there were people around, but they remained hidden beneath the ground most of the time. The soldiers were watching him, as were the predators and beasts, but the men left him alone, distrusting him when he didn’t approach or make himself known.  
  
He didn’t trust them either.  
  
He had lost everything. His family, his friends, he’d even lost his own smile.  
  
After one terrible storm, when he was caught unaware and above ground, he thought he would die. He wanted to, but it seemed he wasn’t allowed to.  
When the blackness took him, he thought that was it, but the voices, the soft Irish lilt called him back and he woke to see a beautiful face. She was an angel, something pure and wonderful in this hell.  
  
“Don’t say anything now,” the woman said, pressing a damp cloth to his forehead “rest. Regain your strength.”  
  
“Who are you?” he groaned as the rest of his surroundings came into focus.  
  
He was in one of the underground shelters. There were about ten other people, some of whom wore tatty and bloodied military insignia on their clothes and held guns, but the woman was not one of them. She was beautiful, even though her short cropped hair was dishevelled, even though her torn ragged clothes far from flattered her. But her smile was something he had not seen in a long while. He’d forgotten that they could even exist.  
  
“I’m Aine and this is my husband. We found you out there and brought you back before the predators could get you. You’re safe, we’ve treated your wounds and you’re going to be okay.”  
  
He looked and saw there was a man, not much older than he was, probably still in his twenties, standing next to her. He looked just as grubby as her, and his glasses were broken on the frames, but as he put his arm around his wife, he smiled too. Though why, he didn’t know.  
  
“We couldn’t let you die,” said Aine, turning and quickly coming back with some water “though the others disagree. Strangers aren’t welcome if they don’t proclaim themselves. We saw you arrive a week ago and you were in a right state, worse than all of us. How are you feeling?”  
  
He didn’t know what he was feeling, except for the loss. One minute he had his parents, his sister and friends and the next, he was here…alone. They were dead, he was alive. It was all he could fathom.  
  
“Rest up, chap.” The woman’s husband chirped up with an English accent rather than Irish, and gently patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll feel better soon and when you do, you can stay with us. I’m sure the soldiers won’t mind, but they’ll want to know who you are. Do you…have a name?”  
  
He knew his name. He had been given it a long time ago, but not everyone called him by his given name, only his parents called him that. Everyone else used his surname.  
“I’m Becker.”  
  
“Please to meet you Becker. Welcome to Enniskillen!”  
  
Where? How did he get here? Becker started to squirm and buck, the couple backed off but the soldiers quickly surrounded him, the mutterings and scared whispers of the others were loud enough for him to hear. The guns clicked and aimed at his head.  
  
Then he saw that Aine was pregnant.  
  
“Oh no…”  
  
“Just make one more move, son and we will shoot you.” warned the soldier. Aine didn’t like that and stood in front of Becker, her arms folded across her chest. “Ma’am, step aside.”  
  
“Touch him and I will end you myself, is that clear?”  
  
It seemed the soldiers weren‘t going to argue with her and who would want to, especially when you knew who she was.  
  
“Sorry, Mrs Anderson.”  
  
Becker couldn’t believe it.  
  
He couldn’t say a thing as Aine and Gideon Anderson took him into their family, fed him with what little morsels of food they could offer and befriended him. He couldn’t refuse either. He had nowhere else to go and so he stayed.  
  
Over the next few months, the others in the group, even the soldiers, warmed to him and Becker finally proved himself when he helped during a predator attack. He became a part of their community and while he loved it, it didn’t feel right.  
  
This wasn’t his family.  
  
But when he had to help deliver Aine’s baby, when he pulled the new born into this world as others nearby were dying, things changed, and it hit him hard.  
  
“It’s a boy.” gasped Gideon, barely containing his joy and tears as he held on to Becker’s shoulder and peered down at his son. “We have a boy.”  
  
A boy, a tiny little boy wriggled in Becker’s hands.  
  
“Oh god.”  
  
None of them had time to savour the moment, to fully enjoy this new life. The soldiers came and they were literally dragged along to the next secure shelter. Becker had to run with this frail boy in his arms and it wasn’t easy.  
  
Everything was a blur again, he didn’t know where he was until Aine’s voice brought him back to reality. He was sitting down on a crate, surrounded by the survivors of the attack who were all looking down at him and the baby.  
  
“This is the first child born in Enniskillen in a number of years.” said one woman.  
  
“Do you two have a name?” Someone else asked Gideon and Aine.  
  
The couple weren’t sure, they didn’t know, so they both looked to Becker.  
  
 _Really?_  
  
“It’s only fair that you name him,” Aine gently stroked her son’s head “You helped bring him into the world.”  
  
Becker nodded, but he was still unsure whether this was really the right thing to do.  
  
“How about Matt? It was my dad’s name.”


	2. First Kill

“Where is he?! Where is he?” 

Her high pitched voice was so anguished and scared that it was close to breaking. She was running through the remaining people, falling to her knees before each child and grabbing their faces to see who they were. 

“He’s not with you?!” He asked. 

“He’s with you! He’s always with you!” She screamed. “Oh god! Please don’t tell me his up there! Oh god! MATTHEW!” 

Gideon watched as his wife ran to towards the ladder. She tried to climb up it but several of the others kept her down, pulling her back, trying to calm her. He rushed over there himself and looked up towards the surface. Up there, a terrible storm was raging and the predators were in the midst of their mating season. It was a terrible time to be on the surface. 

It was even more so if you were a seven year old boy. 

“I have to get him.” He said. 

“No sir!” said a young soldier next to him. “I cannot allow you to open that hatch…not when others are at risk.” 

“My SON is up there!” he bellowed as he ripped his wife from the others arms and wrapped her tightly in his own. He heard her praying, her words murmured over and over against his chest, broken with sobs. “We can’t just stay here!” 

“I’m sorry, sir! We can’t.” 

“Then you’ve killed him!” 

Gideon felt the tears fall down his face as his wife’s screams went beyond hysterical and they collapsed the floor. He didn’t realise how long they stayed there or how long the storm lasted but as soon as the all clear came, they didn’t stay with the majority of the others. They followed the soldiers for they had to know what happened to their son. 

The desolate remains of what had once been Enniskillen seemed more ravaged than before, but as they cautiously scanned for predators, there was no sign of any living thing. Not even a seven year old boy. 

“How could he have been left behind…how could we have been so stupid?!” she whispered to him as the soldiers scouted the area with their weapons. Gideon didn’t know the answer, but he wished he had carried Matt down the hatch himself, he wished he hadn’t let go of his hand. 

Then the couple were signaled urgently, over to a small out cropping. Gideon and his wife rushed over and all the worry vanished from their bodies when they saw the two soldiers pulling out the unconscious—but breathing—boy. 

Gideon watched in astonishment at the sight of his son as he was handed over to his mother. The child felt her presence and snuggled deep into her embrace, but kept a tighter hold on the knife in his hand. 

Matthew Anderson was covered in dirt, grime, puss and blood. On the ground, mere inches from where they had found him, was the dead body of a predator. 

A first kill at such a young age; Gideon felt hope swell in his chest as they took his son back underground, for Matthew could be the one to save them all.


	3. First Sight

Matt Anderson was fourteen when he first got to cross over to the Mainland. He knew it was a privilege only a few people could ever have, but his father said that he deserved it, that they were needed for something special. Matt was needed. 

He wished his mum could have joined them, but the soldiers wouldn’t let her. They said she served no purpose and couldn’t contribute, and Matt had to be literally dragged from her arms before he was shoved down the hatch of the sub. For the journey over he had stayed in his assigned bunk and wept for her, and cursed his father for not doing more. 

Neither of them ever saw her again. 

The first time in a sub was thankfully quiet, none of the aquatic creatures found them or tried to attack them and as soon as they hit the shores of England, Gideon and Matt were immediately sent underground. 

It wasn’t just in Ireland. Matt knew that the whole world had been ravaged, but he had never believed it until he saw it. In England, the desolation appeared far worse, the storms were constant and they couldn’t spend as much time on the surface unless they had breathing equipment, as the atmosphere was far more toxic. Even down in the shelters and tunnels, the air wasn’t as fresh. If fresh was ever a word that could be used to describe the air. 

Matt Anderson was fifteen when he was recruited into the army. They needed young, strong men to train, they needed ‘men’ like Matt to help keep the others safe. He was taught about every single creature that could still survive out in such an environment. He was taught how to kill. 

Matt was sixteen when he was told about the anomalies. It was also the first time he fell in love. It was literally at first sight. 

The woman was beyond beautiful. Matt never thought such beauty could exist in this hell but she did. He had just come back from a scouting mission, his CO had been ripped to shreds by a predator and her young, and only Matt and two others made it back to the main H.Q. 

She was there, standing in a corner, talking to his father in low whispered words, and Matt felt his whole body soar with want. He momentarily forgot the death of his CO and the horror he had witnessed mere moments ago, because never in his whole life had he seen anything so amazing as her. Never had he met a woman that made every part of him crave her so badly. 

It was a feeling he never thought he would experience in this world. 

She was as grubby and dirty as all the rest of them, but underneath her bloodstained, dusty leather garments, Matt saw the outlined curves of her body. He was captivated by every part of her, but what caught his attention the most were her curls of long hair. Amazing long, brown ringlets of hair fell down her back and more than anything Matt wanted touch them, to run his hands through them and feel what the word soft really meant. 

Almost all the women and girls he had met preferred to have short hair, it was impractical to have it long and in some cases dangerous. 

Matt soon forgot about why. She turned and saw him, dark brown eyes widened in surprise for a second before a very sly smile turned up the corner of her mouth. Her eyes darkened, they smouldered with an intent that made the young teen almost burst. 

Her lips mouthed, _“Hello, Matt”_ and he staggered back in shock.

“My God… she knows my name!” 

Matt stumbled and fell back into something solid. 

“Have you quite finished gawping at her, Anderson?” 

Matt spun round and his body immediately snapped to attention… or the parts of him that weren’t already. He looked up at the officer standing before him. He didn’t recognise him as any of the officers at Command. He was new.

He was the man in charge for he had the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on the shoulder of his long, black, torn leather coat, a rank Matt had never seen on anyone before. His black hair was cropped short and he had an unkempt stubbly beard. Two shotguns were strapped to his back and several other guns were concealed beneath the confines of his coat. 

This man was armed to the teeth. 

“Sorry, sir.” He glanced up and down at this new officer and gulped numerous times. 

The colonel looked as if he had been through more than several scrapes with predators. The scar across his neck painted a clear enough picture of how close he had come to death, but it was one long scar that ran from the middle of his forehead, across his left eyebrow and down to his ear that made him look menacing. Matt had acquired a number of injuries himself, and seen plenty on others, but this man had been through some serious wars. 

“So you should be sorry. She’s far too old for you.” The colonel smiled and squeezed Matt’s shoulder tightly before walking away. “Or is that the other way round?”

“Sir?” 

The colonel laughed and indicated, with a directional nod of his head and a whistle, for Matt to follow him. Matt nervously did so and came to a halt next to his father, his eyes locked in wide surprise at the two new arrivals. The woman was even more astonishing close up… yes, she was older, but apart from a few little scars on her face, she was incredible. 

Her smile was brighter than any of the lights they had in the shelters and tunnels. Matt knew he was grinning like a right idiot, infatuated by her presence and close proximity, but he couldn’t stop and he didn’t even care that the woman in question had noticed. 

“Matt Anderson.” The woman stepped forward and smiled pleasantly at him. Matt felt his heart rate quicken. “My husband and I are here because we want you to help us. We want you and your father to join our team…” 

_Oh God…. she’s married and… ugh! To him!_ Matt’s shoulders slumped and the grin that had been actually hurting his face dropped. 

“Team? Me?” Matt saw the colonel grinning smugly as he slipped an arm around the woman’s waist. “You want me on your team? What for?” 

“To change the past, Matt,” she said. “To change the now.” 

Matt looked to his father, who nodded and then Matt accepted their offer. He couldn’t say no. Not if it meant being close to her.

When Matt Anderson was eighteen, he left behind his time and his world to go through the anomaly. He had been selected… She had chosen him.


	4. First Impressions

They hadn’t expected to find a thriving civilization. Sort of. 

No one on the team expected to go through to a time that closely resembled theirs, but here they were. 

There was London, ravaged beyond recognition except for few left over parts of key landmarks and monuments. The sun was blocked out by thick toxic clouds, only a blurred yellow outline of it indicated it was day not night. Winds howled and blew up dirt and debris, it was so harsh goggles and scarves had to be worn to cover their faces. 

The environment was still toxic but as the team scouted round, there were no signs of predators or indeed any other kind of creatures. 

The man found the team first. He was a lone wanderer just ambling around in the dust storm without a care in the world, holding a long metal cylinder and muttering to himself. None of the team saw him until the last second, when he gave Matt a sharp shove that sent him crashing to the ground. 

“You shouldn’t be out here!” His words spat in anger and an accusing finger pointed directly at Matt as the man stood over him, wielding the cylinder like a club. “What are you doing out here? No one leaves the compound but me!” 

“We didn’t come from the compound!” 

Gideon’s words made the man back away and hug the cylinder close to his chest. His masked face looked at Gideon before turning to Captain Sadler, Matt and the other members of the team in turn. 

“You didn’t come from there? You’re not from my compound? Where did you come from?” 

Gideon stepped in front of Matt, he held up his hand to keep back the others and he slowly waved his palm downwards to get them to lower their weapons. It was a typical move for Gideon he always wanted to be the first to make contact with whatever lay on the other side of the anomalies. No matter what the danger. 

Matt had a feeling inside telling him that something wasn’t right.

“Dad!” 

“It’s okay, son.” Gideon reassured Matt with a pat on his shoulder before addressing the man. “We’re not from the compound. We’re from very far away. Could we go to your compound and get out of this storm? None of us are going to survive if we’re caught in it.” 

The man was very adverse to that idea, he was going to say no and he turned to abandon them but when the wind suddenly picked up, when everyone noticed a cyclone building up in the not too far distance, he waved them on to follow. 

Nothing like this place existed in Matt’s time. 

It was underground, filled with clean and furnished rooms, laboratories and offices, all of which were intact. Whatever had made the earth like it was, whatever had killed and destroyed life and structures alike all over the world, it had not touched this place. 

When Matt took off his mask, he saw crowds of people; he saw a place that he never knew existed. Compared to his time, this place was like a paradise. Over thirty people greeted them at the entrance, people who were clean and clothed, who looked well and nourished.

They were not afraid. They didn’t even appear to be injured, no creature bites or claw marks. Every one of them appeared to be healthy. There were even children. Happy, healthy children. 

None of those people never said a thing. They waited for answers from the man about these new visitors. They waited for him to unravel his wrappings and take off his goggles and when he did, Matt involuntarily took a step back. 

He was a tall middle aged man, his frame solid and broad, but without all the coverings protecting his head and when the long jacket slipped off him, Matt had a much better look at who he was. His long tatty hair was dusted with dirt and grey as was his thick bushy beard. His skin was caked with dirt too, but beneath the dark grime were his eyes. They were green like emeralds and just as sharp. They were frightening. 

Matt’s first impressions upon seeing the man’s face was immediate dislike, a wrenching fear twisted in the pit of his stomach. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as instinct told him to keep away from this man. Far away. 

A chill ran down his back. 

“Welcome to my sanctuary,” The man opened his arms out in greeting and a smile came to his lips. It wasn’t a pleasant one “This is the only place left in London that remains untouched. I have kept it that way, I have made this community what it is. I know everyone, but I don’t know you. You’ve come through one of the anomalies, haven’t you?” 

_Don’t tell him. Don’t._ Matt looked to his dad, his own eye begged for his father not to answer. 

It wasn’t Gideon who confirmed the man’s question and made his smile that much wider. It wasn’t Gideon or Matt who picked out the AOD from their pack. Sadler stepped forward and showed the device to the man. Those green eyes widened in desire. The man reached out a hand to touch at the smooth edges of the AOD and his fingertips merely skimmed the transparent casing before pulling away. 

He breathed in an excited gasp. “You’re from the future?” 

_Don’t say anything more!_ Matt turned to Sadler and shook his head. _Please don’t tell him!_

Captain Ian Sadler wasn’t the brightest of men. 

“Yeah. We’re from the year 2516.” 

_You eejit!_

Matt couldn’t believe Sadler had said that, Gideon definitely disapproved, but then there was a huge boom of laughter and both of them were pulled into an embrace that had them squirming to get out of. 

“That is fantastic! Oh gentlemen, this is a truly wonderful surprise! You should by all means stay!” The man squeezed Matt and Gideon one more time and finally released them. “You must refresh, eat and rest! My people will get you all that you need and then I can tell you everything you need to know!” 

“What we need to know?” Matt asked. The man laughed and whacked him on the back. 

“Well, we can all agree that knowing too much about the future is bad for us, but it’s clear you’ve forgotten your past! This is the year 2089 and there is a lot we can tell you, a lot you clearly don’t know!” 

“We don’t know who you are, for starters.” Matt said. 

The man smiled and wrapped an arm around Matt’s shoulders as he began to lead him and the others into the main section of the complex. 

“Sonny, I’m the leader of these people, the only survivors in the whole of London. I made this sanctuary possible. I am Nathan Ackley.” 

Somehow, Matt wasn’t entirely comforted by that.


	5. First Through

“Where are you boy? Why are you hiding?” 

Matt Anderson was hiding because he didn’t want to die. He didn’t want his father to die either, despite the fact that he was going to. The anger and grief choked the young teen at the same time he thought about his father’s fate, but he had to concentrate. One slip, one mistake and he would fail not only his father, but the whole world. 

Matt had tried to make sense of this maze, but it appeared that the sea of anomalies was changing every minute. He saw several disappear and new ones form before his eyes, but there was no sign of his pursuers. Matt was shaking, everything was at stake here, lives were relying on him. 

He tried not to think of his friends who were now dead. He tried not to think of how the man had brutally ended their lives. Instead he focused on the fact that the man was dead, and on the device that was showing him the way out. 

The wind was picking up, getting stronger and the change would prove difficult to get to the one anomaly he and his father needed. 

“I’ll cover you.” 

The hand on his shoulder squeezed affectionately and then to his surprise there was a sweet lingering kiss to his cheek. He looked round and she was right there, as if she had never left. She kissed him again, this time making her lips linger before pulling away to check her guns.

“Come with us,” he begged, taking hold of her dirty and bloodied hand and pressing her fingers to his lips. “Please. Everyone else is dead and so is Ackley. You said yourself that you came here to change the past… so come with us. Help me change the now.” 

“Including him?” 

She looked round to where the colonel was talking softly to Matt’s father. The scarred solider was looking more serious than normal, whispering to Gideon and checking his vitals at the same time. 

“You think I hate your husband….” Matt said turning back to her. He was going to lie, but she knew him all too well and that smile simply told him not to bother. “Okay… yeah. I hate the fact that he’s married to you… the guy is… he’s annoying.”

“Immensely so,” she agreed. “But you like him. I can tell. So?”

“Yes! Okay! So! Why can’t the two of you come back with me and my father? You can help us with this mission you started. You can tell me what….”

She shook her head and kissed him again on the cheek. She seemed sad. 

“You know we can’t. We have to find my son. Besides, we don’t belong in that time.”

Matt wasn’t going to question as to why she said “my” son and not “our” because Matt had known not to ask about that. The couple hadn’t said much of anything on their past or where they had come from, instead they constantly made sure that Matt was ready. They trained him and his friends for this very moment… She had said he was special. But then so had Ackley. 

“ANDERSON!” The angry yell of his name echoed throughout the valley and it jolted Matt out of his daze. “Show yourself! Come out and we can settle this amicably!”

By amicably, Matt knew the man meant his death. When it was announced to the community back home that they were going back to the past to prevent the disaster, the attempts on their lives had come in droves from Ackley’s followers. Though for his father… it was already too late. 

“Go! Go now!” 

Matt forgot that he hadn’t been keeping an eye on the device in his hands like should have been. He didn’t see the anomaly beacon flashing on the screen and when he looked round, his father was already urging him to lead the way with frantic waves of his hands.

“Hurry Matthew! Hurry!” 

He noticed that she had moved away from him whilst he was in his daydream , laying down cover fire with her two favourite guns and now the colonel was tugging on the back of Matt’s shirt and dragging him up off his feet so he would stand by his father. 

“Go, Matt!” The colonel barked. “Take your father and head to that anomaly!”

Matt was stunned. The colonel had never called him by his first name before.

“I said go! Get out of here, because that anomaly is not going to last much longer.” 

The pinching of grubby oily fingers at his face forced Matt to look up at the colonel and for the first time in two years, there was a look of concern, worry—or was it affection?—in the man’s dark brown eyes. 

“Don’t worry about us, Matt. We’ll be fine.” 

The colonel leaned down and to Matt’s utter shock, planted a hard kiss on his forehead. He then smiled as if he hadn’t done it, patted Gideon on the arm and turned away to join his wife. The colonel effortlessly withdrew both the shotguns strapped to his back and began firing towards their pursuers. She went with him, causing the distraction that Matt and his father so desperately needed. 

He wished they could’ve come with them. He felt suddenly lost and vulnerable knowing that he wasn’t going to have their support in the new world, but he wasn’t going to let them down, not after everything they had done for him. 

Matt didn’t realise he had been running until he felt his father stumble behind him. He didn’t think about helping his father along, he just did it, pulling him up from the grass and assisting him with frantic pulls on his arm. Gideon was thankfully still quite strong and was able to continue, but Matt couldn’t help but dwell on what would eventually happen.

“Keep going!” 

They ran so hard that Matt barely managed to stop them from going through the wrong anomalies, but when the wailing of the AD signaled they were upon the one they needed he managed to stop himself and catch his father, both of them holding on to each other, panting for breath. 

The anomaly was fading… growing weak. 

“Go on, Matthew! Go through!” 

Matt took one last look over his shoulder at the sea of anomalies and in the distance he watched the colonel and his wife pulling off the perfect distraction. As they drew out the others, Matt was in awe at how they flawlessly fought by each other’s side, as he always had been. 

“Son! We have to go!”

Matt turned away and looked to the anomaly that would change his life forever. He took in some deep breaths and stepped through, into the Garden of Eden.


End file.
